These reports on developments outside Japan were presented to the Tokugawa shogun's magistrate in Nagasaki by the head of the Dutch factory there when assuming the post for a year-long tenure after disembarking at Dejima, the Dutch settlement. The magistrate had the report translated into Japanese for submission to the shogunate.
　The provision of overseas information through these reports was one of the obligations imposed on the factory head by the shogunate. Around 1640, when the practice began, they concerned events mainly in the three areas of Europe, India, and China in keeping with the purpose of collecting information on the movements of Spain and Portugal around the world.
　With the passage of time, the reports underwent change in respect of frequency and content. Upon the outbreak of the Opium War (1840-1842), the shogunate requested more detailed accounts, and this led to the addition of the "betsudan fuhsetsugaki" appendix. The shogunate obliged Chinese ships to submit analogous reports ("karafune fuhsetsugaki"). In this way, it actively gathered news on the outside world even while maintaining the policy of national isolation.
　Based on the information contained in these reports, the shogunate bolstered the coastal defenses in the feudal provinces of Sagami, Awa, and Kazusa (the present Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures) in the wake of the Opium War, and sent back the U.S. ships under the command of Commodore James Biddle that had entered the Uraga Strait, at the mouth of Tokyo Bay, in 1846. After this incident, it reportedly expected the arrival of a larger squadron. When Perry's squadron arrived in 1853, they found the Kawagoe, Hikone, and Aizu detachments of samurai stationed in the area, ready and waiting for action. This is graphic evidence of the effects of the information obtained through the reports. (The reports in the photo were prepared after Perry's visit.)